Apr 25, 2019
Sakura-Con 2019
Overall Experience
One of the largest anime conventions in the Northwest. If you love anime, cosplaying, and anime related merchandise, then you've found the right place! I bought the tickets last minute this year so had to pay the door price, but overall the onsite tickets were easy to obtain (usually located in the Conference Center @ WSCC). Security for the event was well organized as they usually have personnel posted on the entrances/exists. In terms of the crowd, I never felt like it was excessively packed with the exception of the artist alley (situated at the Conference Center); walkways aren't spacious and with people lingering around to look at the artists' merch, traffic typically gets blocked. But overall people tend to hang around with their cosplays with the most popular place being the outside garden on the 4th floor of the WSCC main building. My general impression is that Sakura-Con brings in guests that are featured in current popular animes or related media, such as this years guest of honor being Sumire Moroshi (lead voice actress of Emma from The Promised Neverland). The con also have events such as free play console, learning mahjong, cosplay repair, amv contests, dance parties, panels, cosplay chess, charity auction, official merch floor, and many more. Overall its a well organized event that I could see myself going from time to time!
Advice
1) Register early so you don't have to pay for door pricing as the prices increase as the event nears ($50 > $55 > $60 > $65 > $70 > $80).
2) For guest of honor panels or other popular events, you'll want to start waiting in line at least 30mins-1hr ahead of schedule as they do cap at capacity.
3) When outside of the convention and wondering the streets, be mindful where you place/clip your badge as there's been known cases of people yanking it right off the attendee.
4) An obvious one is, avoid trying to grab food during rush hour times as everyone has the same idea and will drive wait times up.